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Day One: Interviews and opening night

Day One began well. A text from Justine Larbalestier led to breakfast with her and her husband Scott Westerfeld. I had not met Justine before, but we’d bonded over cricket on Twitter. I’d heard Scott do a reading at the KGB Readings in New York, back in 2010 when I was there for the Brooklyn Book Festival. As well-travelled souls with lots of experience crossing both the date line and the equator, they were very kind to me in my still semi-woozy state.

The day got very busy after that. The excellent Tracey Cheetham, publicist at Pan Macmillan Australia, is also responsible for publicity for Quercus titles, and she tirelessly set up several interviews for me during my time in Adelaide. On Friday morning I had two important phonecalls: one an interview for a podcast, the other a pre-interview for a live radio interview taking place the following week. Then I went to the ABC studios in the early afternoon to discuss Redemption in Indigo with Sonya Feldhoff for the ABC 891 Book Club.

I tried to alleviate the jetlag with naps, but it was still an effort to get up and go to the reception and performance for the opening night of the Adelaide Festival. The dance performance was very much appreciated by the audience, but I’ll admit I lost my fight to stay awake and discreetly nodded off, relatively upright in my comfortable seat, until roused by applause.

Next, Day Two, in which there is much improvement to my level of mental alertness.